for those who love good prose...
Suprose aims to encourage and support literature, authors, books and audiences of SA prose. Think of this as a watering hole where conversations begin and friendships develop.

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Wednesday, July 30, 2003

In India, food and stories always go hand in hand. A south Indian meal, especially, is full of laughter, conversation and stories and in keeping with this tradition, two new books by authors of south Indian origin, go on to weave interesting tales with flavorful recipes that are integrally tied in with each other.

Monsoon Diary is a book of memoirs by award winning journalist Shoba Narayan, who lives in New York City. Originally, from the city of Madras in south India, she graduated with a Master of Science from the Columbia University School of Journalism in 1995. Since, Narayan has written about food, travel and her native India for many publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Travel & Leisure, Gourmet, Food & Wine, Saveur, Newsweek, Beliefnet and House Beautiful, among others. Her essays and commentaries have appeared on NPR's All Things Considered Weekend.

Winner of the prestigious James Beard Foundation's MFK Fisher Award for Distinguished Writing in April 2001, she takes her readers through the intricacies of traditional South Indian life and culture, interspersed with some of the most popular delicacies of India. Her tales revolve around growing up with her grand parents, traveling on trains and meeting new and interesting people, her parents’ trysts with starting new home run businesses, and others. Stories about spices, that her mother has told her should not be used before one gets married because of their aphrodisiacal qualities; the traditional south Indian ritual of making sun dried vegetables on the terrace during the hot tropical summers; buying milk each morning from her milkman whose cows are all named after his wives, are some of the enthralling tales she narrates from her childhood years.

As Narayan grows up and travels within India and abroad, her interactions with people of various backgrounds spawns some new food interests. She introduces to her readers foods from various regions of India such as Channa Masala – chick peas in a rich gravy of tomatoes, onions and spices, Fruit Chaat – a tangy fruit salad with unusual spices, Poha – a savory dish made with beaten rice and spices, and Thandaai – a cold sweet drink made with milk and exotic spices such as cardamom and saffron. A tender stuffed okra curry and a smooth spinach side dish, among other recipes in a traditional South Indian menu become her ticket to America, when her family tests her cooking mettle before they agree to send her to the US for higher studies. She recollects some more interesting anecdotes about how she held herself a fundraising dinner to help her get through graduate school in the US and the charming story of her arranged marriage.

Narayan’s book goes from the very basic South Indian recipes such as ghee – clarified butter, which she calls the “Vegetarians’ Caviar” and rasam – a hot a spicy broth made with dal, spices and tomatoes, to some of the more exotic street foods such as Pav Bhaji – which is pan toasted bread rolls served with a delicious mixed vegetable curry. Interestingly enough she narrates the tale of how she found some of the best Pav Bhaji in the streets of London. Traditional south Indian recipes such as Vatral Kuzhambu – fried sun dried vegetables soaking in a hot, sour and spicy tamarind gravy and Upma – a porridge like dish made with semolina and spices, interestingly enough, have a language of their own and speak deeply about south Indian relationships, life, and culture.

Narayan’s father, also a food enthusiast, and a keen experimenter, seems to have been a huge influence in her life and appears in several tales in her memoirs. While Narayan has a very specific recipe for her chutney and her father is the eternal artist, trying new combinations, she seems to find his coconut chutney recipe tantalizing and shares it with her readers. On a trip to New York City with an American friend, Narayan encounters a taxi driver from Kerala, a southwestern state in India, very famous for its spice coast. She strikes a rapport with the driver and is very excited when she is invited to his home for a traditional meal. She reveals the taxi driver’s wife, Shanti’s, recipe for a fragrant and tasty Olan, a simple but extraordinarily flavorful medley of steamed pumpkins spiced up with coconut milk and chilies.

Overall, Narayan is a proficient storyteller who has perfected the technique of making her recipes become a narrator of sorts and describe various incidents from a unique perspective. All in all this is a fine book of delightful memoirs and tempting recipes.

The Mango Season is Amulya Malladi’s second fiction novel. This time however her novel becomes the background for various food related events and is laced with traditional yet very popular south Indian delicacies from India’s southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh. Known for its spicy red mango pickles, food from this state is rich yet comforting. The heroine, Priya Rao, is an Indian girl who went to America to study. Now seven years, later she is living with an American fiancé, Nick, and returns to India to visit her parents, confront her very orthodox and traditional family, and tell them about her impending marriage with an American.

She arrives in India at the peak of the mango season when the markets are filled with competing mango vendors and every household is in the midst of their pickle making endeavors. This pickle making is obviously serious business, as everyone has an assigned chore and executes it to the best of their ability. In the middle of this hot summer and the pickle buzz is Priya’s struggle with confronting her parents and her very conventional family. As she does this she once again experiences all those favorite Andhra foods that she grew up with. Her grandfather who is one of her closest relatives, asks Priya to make the south Indian Avial, which she is famous for - a blend of vegetables in a sauce of coconut, green chilies, cumin and other spices. While Priya and her father step out one night to have sugarcane juice from a street vendor and have their tête-à-tête about arranged marriages, they hurry back to have dinner where the staple food of Andhra, Mango Pappu – a thick gravy made with lentils, mangoes and other spices and served with ghee and hot steaming rice, is introduced as Priya’s favorite recipe.

From the Avakai - a mixture of cut mangoes soaking in turmeric powder, cayenne pepper powder, mustard powder and sesame oil, one of the most loved mango pickles of India to perugannam or Yogurt rice, which is a staple comfort food of several south Indian states these recipes are woven into the novel very naturally. Perugannam is a simple dish that can be eaten with pickles or just by itself and pretty much at any time of day, and is skillfully put together one morning at breakfast by Sowmya, a key character in the novel, using leftovers from the previous night.

Rava Laddoo – little white lime sized balls made of semolina, flour, sugar and cardamom, a sweet dish that melts in your mouth and Alloo Bajji - made with potatoes dipped in a batter of chick pea flour, salt and spices and deep fried, a crisp savory snack, are both very traditional tea time refreshments and are introduced on a more interesting note. In Andhra, these snacks are usually served along with tea or coffee during or rather before arranged marriages, during the “girl seeing ceremony,” when a boy comes to the girl’s house to check her out.

Malladi, weaves an interesting story of the tussle between, traditional and modern beliefs, social issues from India that are prevalent to this day in middle class families, all in the middle of a busy pickle preparation ritual in a traditional Andhra home. Originally from Hyderabad, India she also has a Masters degree in Journalism from the University of Memphis. She currently lives in Denmark with her husband and son.

Thursday, February 13, 2003

Certainly a breath of fresh air, first time author Amulya Malladi’s debut novel weaves a compassionate story around one of the worst disasters ever, in India. This is not just another story of an Indian immigrant or wannabe. With this a touching story, which is completely set in India, Malladi is on the track to join the ranks of other successful emerging South Asian writers of the post- Rushdie generation.What happened in December 1984 at a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, continues to send ripple effects through the country and her people even today. As court cases are being fought and those affected by the toxic gas directly or indirectly are still feeling the repercussions of this disaster, this novel weaves a story around three strong fictional characters whose lives have been more than touched, by this tragedy. Who better to dramatize this incident than one who was right there when it all happened?Amulya Malladi was nine years old when on the night of December 3rd, 1984, the infamous gas explosion occurred. She and her family were saved even though they were only four kilometers from the Union Carbide factory, the source of the explosion, because the wind was blowing in the other direction! This tragic event was the impetus behind her first novel. A quick read, this novel is very well written and creates vivid pictures of the characters and the scenes in the readers mind. Besides the imagery, A Breath of Fresh Air is a very well rendered novel that brings to life the domestic dramas of a smart and spirited Indian woman in contemporary India, the human ability for forgiveness and perseverance.The story begins on that fateful night in 1984, as a lady waits for her army officer husband to pick her up at the train station in Bhopal. Her anger with his tardiness is soon replaced with horror when the explosion pours poisonous gas into the air. This main character is Anjali, who is now a schoolteacher. The narrators of the story are the three main characters themselves – Anjali, Sandeep and Prakash, talking about their thoughts and experiences which finally culminates in a finish to an episode that has been open ended for several years. Anjali a young dreamy girl has an arranged marriage. She marries army officer Prakash and realizes that she has been seeing Prakash through rose tinted glasses. Time to face reality, but fate has something else in store for her. Anjali becomes a victim of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. She survives the tragedy, but little does she know about it’s after effects. Anjali and Prakash get divorced, and as she is creating a new life for herself she falls in love with Sandeep and marries him. Sandeep and Anjali are very happy together. They have a beautiful son, who is terminally ill, the result of the after effect of the toxic poisoning that Anjali suffered from. One day suddenly, Prakash comes back into Anjali’s life. The uncertainty Anjali thought time and conviction had healed – about her decision to divorce, and about her place in society that views her as scandalous for having walked away from an arranged marriage – again envelops her. Her emotions and disturbed state of mind reverberate through all her family members. Similarly, his family members feel Prakash’s emotions and feelings. To add to this confusion is the deteriorating state of Anjali’s son. She must struggle to reconcile her roles as ex-wife and wife, working woman and mother – and once again her beliefs are challenged. Malladi takes the story to a crescendo and brings it to a beautiful ending, bringing to life the human ability for forgiveness and perseverance, and resonating with the abiding power of love.